PageRank For Sale -- part 2

Click here to go to Part 1 of this interview

A threat to Google?

Jono Craig: Google's PageRank or PR has become a form of currency if you will, prior to PR for sale. Don't you view the monetarization of PageRank or your service as a threat to Google's successful business model?

Robert Massa: Absolutely not. Of course that's what you'd expect me to say.

The thing is, Google has invested a lot of time, money and technology into developing PageRank as a way to determine the quality of a Web page. They have a very sophisticated system of filters designed to do nothing more than find the good and catch the bad. Whether a link is free or paid for does not alter the content of the page the link goes to.

If someone is silly enough to pay for a link that goes to a bad page, it would get caught by Google's algorithm the same as if the link was provided for free.

I'm not blind. I'm aware that conventional wisdom seems convinced that this is the end of the Internet, Google's PageRank or at least me, but the fact is, the only people who are at risk are the same ones who were at risk before. If you try to run your business honestly and professionally, you should fear no man. If you are trying to hide, lie or cheat, your days are numbered and it is only a matter of time before the fiddler wants paid.

There is nothing wrong with wanting link popularity for your site and I'm saying there is nothing wrong with sending out email to people you don't know from Adam and trying to conduct business without the benefit of money, but there is also nothing wrong with paying for the value you perceive with cash. I call it doing business.

If the PageRank were a threat to Google, why would they release it to the public? No I don't see this as any threat to Google. In many ways, it serves only to validate the system.

PageRank was used because of the assumption that a Web site would not risk it's reputation by linking and sending it's own visitors to a low quality page. Paying for a link, knowing that it will be reviewed twice before being accepted does not diminish the quality of a link. It enhances it. If PageRank worked before, it will work better now.

There will always be people who think they need to find an easy way. This only helps stop that element and I think Google is smart enough to see that.

Google's reaction

Jono Craig: There's been some recent discussion within the SEO community as to how Google is going to react to sites such as www.searchking.com and www.pradnetwork.com. Do you have an opinion on Google's possible reaction?

Robert Massa: Of course the SEO community is going to want to believe that. Go to just about any SEO's Web page and included in their list of benefits is that they will increase your link popularity. How is Google going to react to that? I expect Google will react much the same way to some little guy like me out there doing the same thing only up front about it. Someone coming out and offering to give you a link for a fee threatens their own survival and at least creates stiff competition. There may also be a little righteous indignation related to the, "hey I thought of that first" syndrome.

I have bills to pay, a family to feed and partners to answer to. I'm going to use whatever value I have available to me to make a decent living and pay my bills. I expect Google to react to me much the same way.

Now, I'm not any kind of Internet guru and I have no idea of what Google will react to or how. What I do know is if Google would strike a small Internet businessman like myself down for capitalizing on the credit given to me by Google themselves, then we all have much more to fear than some guy in Oklahoma selling a few ads. That would be an indication that Google fully intends to overthrow Bill Gates and rule the world.

Google has proven over the last few years to be professional, upfront and responsible. I see absolutely no reason Google would react in any way other than to continue trying to reach their own objectives. If that objective is global domination, maybe then Goliath will slay David and then we can all wonder if we're next.

Possible penalties

Jono Craig: One expected response from Google is that people should be careful what they pay for. They don't always get what they expect. That Google prefer algorithms to fight 'spam' but are happy to investigate claims of abuse manually if they need to. To me this would imply some form of intervention; both through public advice and possibly through filters or penalties to sites such as www.pradnetwork.com & www.searchking.com

Robert Massa: To me, it only illustrates the reason Google has become as successful as it has. They run a good search engine at least in part because they care enough to investigate. I'm not asking for or expecting any special consideration.

I fully intend to comply with every aspect of professionalism and honesty in regards to my network, my clients and to Google. I invite any investigation because we are doing nothing but trying to make a living by building a better Web.

I honestly believe the best chance I have of moving up from a PR 8 to a PR 9 would be figuring out how to get Google to take a look at we're doing. Once they see the network concept for double reviewing each ad and getting them placed on the right pages and for not accepting trash, I think they would be very supportive. We are on their side!

This was not some kind of thinly veiled threat. It is merely smart advice to a businessperson. Google could have just as easily said, "If it sounds to good to be true it probably is." Would that sound like a threat to SearchKing?

I think that statement is only prudent on Google's part because it does alert all the "snatch and grabs" out there who would not consider anyone's plight but their own. It gives Google a chance to state its position, which makes a lot of sense, and establish a loose policy without singling out anyone.

Jono Craig: Discussion within the SEO community has included the following possibilities: Google penalizing both www.searchking.com & www.pradnetwork.com, manually adding filters so that PR cannot be passed onto other sites (your customer's sites) and finally changing their PageRank technology to become more theme or topic relevant.

Robert Massa: I had to consider the possibility that I am all wrong about Google and that they would be vindictive and try to take some kind of action to damage or destroy me.

#1. SearchKing gets a very considerable amount of traffic on it's own. I get more traffic from SearchKing than I do from Google. Unlike many others, I have respect for Google and appreciate the traffic they send, but I am not totally dependent on it.

#2. The network consists of hundreds of high PageRank sites. If they penalize SearchKing for selling ads on any page I choose, or penalize clients that would put their trust in SearchKing, I would have to make my clients the first priority and move their ads to where they were able to get the benefit they expected when they choose to do business with me.

#3. My greatest wish is that it evolves into something more theme or topic related. SearchKing exists to provide software and support to a network of topic specific portals. No other person on the planet stands to gain more than SearchKing if this evolves. Who else has a network of hundreds of quality niche sites to draw from?

#4. I just don't think it's going to be a problem. I pose no threat to Google or PageRank‘. As I said earlier, the business model I'm using is based on respect for their system and not based on a way to "get around" it.

#5. Does anyone really think I'm going to sell so many ads that I will attempt some kind of hostile take-over or something? I'm pretty sure Google has much bigger fish to fry than me and this little flap will pass into ancient history in a matter of days. The ‘snatch and grabs’ will cause some degree of distress to me and to Google, but they always have and in that respect, today will not be that much different than tomorrow. SearchKing and Google both will still have to run our businesses, pay our taxes and meet our payroll.

Customer confidence

Jono Craig: How do you intend to build customer confidence in a service, which appears somewhat controversial?

Robert Massa: By following the philosophy I have been preaching to my partners for years and is even now posted right on my Websites. No big mystery. I will follow the "DO" philosophy,

I will do the best job I can do.

I will take pride in what I do.

I will do what I say I will do.

Jono Craig: One view within the community suggests that PR for sale is simply an extension of the concept of selling ads or text links. How do you feel?

Robert Massa: I feel that PageRank is much like an award or a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. I think it is awarded to you based on how a third party feels about your efforts and it becomes yours to enjoy, whatever that may entail. If it helps a Webmaster get offered more than 50 cents a thousand impressions, then I'm all for it.

Jono Craig: The more cynical SEO's amongst us believe PR for sale has only one purpose: to eke out cash from people. They predict its demise as a marketing model or means within a short period of time. Surely there are no guarantees to your clients at this point?

Robert Massa: Maybe I really am the Internet anti-Christ for saying this, but here goes.

I am a salesman. I sell things for a living. I get hired by my clients to sell things. That's what I do, I'm good at it and I make no apologies for it. If a cynical SEO uses the term "eke out cash" as a synonym for "make a sale," then yes, I am guilty. If people see value in a having a link from a high PR page and are willing to pay for it, I'm not going to try to talk them out of it. That isn't selling, to me, that is just silly.

My portals partners have been getting ridiculous offers of things like $5 a month for ads on their front pages. This has happened more times than you'd think over the last couple of years and I'm insulted, I'm offended and I think it is time a Webmaster who works hard enough to earn a PR 5, 6 or 7 deserves the respect that would imply.

What I do, I do not only for myself but for my partners as well. If my concept of a portal network is ever going to grow, it is going to have to be financed and if we allow the value of an ad on a quality site to be set by the advertiser, I lose, my partners lose and I believe the internet will lose.

As far as predicting it's demise as a business model, who cares? Few net business models that I'm aware of survived the 20th century. I'm still here. My portal partners are still here and we still have the right to make a living off our efforts regardless of what anyone would predict.

Guarantees for the clients? What guarantees were there for that Yahoo Japan stock? Business is a risk. If you come to me and ask me to place an ad, I can guarantee you won't be charged if I can't do it. If you come to me asking me to place an ad but what you really want is for me to make you rich, then you have no business being in business.

Click here to go to part 3 of this interview >>>>

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